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â€¦ that was likely someone commuting in from Milton or Quincy. BF & I lived at Dot & Adams years ago, and the traffic would start ungodly early. And the commuters seemed to forget that's a residential neighborhood-- they sped, they laid on the horn, they pealed out of the light, they left there cars running outside of Dunks until it looked like a scene from American Grafitti and smelled like a gas chamber. I liked the neighborhood a lot but was relieved to get away from that.

So sad to hear of a fatality there. I'm glad the driver stopped, though.

...to prevent this sort of senseless tragedy? It seems that everyday someone is getting injured or killed as the result of reckless, aggressive, distracted, impaired, careless, negligent or otherwise unsafe operation of a motor vehicle. Many cities in Europe and now NYC and San Francisco in the US, have adopted Vision Zero. This is a strategy to prevent the completely unnecessary, unacceptable and preventable serious injuries and fatalities that are now a daily occurance. So....Mayor Walsh, City Council, Governor Patrick, Members of the Legislature and all agencies involved with transportation issues, what's our plan?

Oh, from pictures, they are already there, along with freshly painted road and crosswalk striping. Perhaps it was a stealth vehicle not seen by the pedestrian, except it was big, white, and has reflectors and lights. Oh, but it did not have external air cushions on the bumpers. Many accidents are the fault of drug/alcohol impaired pedestrians who often J-walk. This could have been the case here, but nobody should rush to judgement yet.

[edit] The bigger picture would be to make more limited access highways so that local roads could be made low speed roads. These local roads would then be less lethal when mistakes are made. Many areas of Germany were leveled by carpet bombing, so they had the opportunity to rebuild that way.

Pedestrians liked walking so much, they took to riding on boats despite risks of drowning, took to riding on horses or horse-drawn wagons despite high cost, and they took to riding on trains - all before there were cars. Sure, everybody rather walk, but don't out of fear, not laziness or time constraints. Keep drinking that Kool Aid!

Is there proof that the driver was totally at fault? I didn't see any at the links or in the photos. If there is none, people are jumping to an awful lot of conclusions here. Isn't it possible she stepped off the curb without looking? No victim-blaming; just saying it isn't always some homicidal nutjob behind the wheel and maybe we should wait before blaming some poor driver who may be traumatized by the entire thing..

The first comment seems to say that it is the driver's fault, though the theory- seriously, who is commuting at 5AM on a Saturday- is a bit thin. I think most people posting just wished it hadn't happened, something we all would like to think.

If I recall correctly, that's by your old stomping grounds, no?

Yeah, it could have been anything. Inattentive driver, inattentive pedestrian, perhaps neither expecting the other to come by at that time of day. I've never walked around there, or if I have it was decades ago, but it seems to be a tough intersection.

20 years ago, I lived on Caddy Road (which doesn't show on the map, but is the little street between Sturbridge and Temple.)

I'm too far removed to comment on the current traffic. When I lived there, there weren't any signals at the intersection in question. It was busy, but you just used common sense and looked before turning. Since then, the supermarket moved from near Central Avenue to its current location on River Street near the intersection. I expect that upped the ante (although probably not at 5 am.)

In any case, I was only bothered by the assumption of fault. Wanting folks to be safe from recklessness is admirable, but assuming fault before proof is given is not.

I did not claim it was caused by a homicidal driver. I pointed out that Lower Mills is full of inattentive or careless commuters driving, and at 5 AM, that's a pretty likely cause of an accident. Lots of folks commute through there on Saturdays as well as the rest of the week. Sunday was the only day we were not awakened by traffic noise. This was one of the significant reasons we moved out, as we couldn't find an affordable place far enough from one of the Dot-Adams-Washington-River intersections to justify staying in Lower Mills with our work hours. And the traffic only got worse once the bridge over the Neponset was repaired.